"What's
left of my music if I have it played by Classical musicians and omit the most
important element, the beats?" This question was the starting point for
INSTRUMENTS, the new Henrik Schwarz album. Four years have passed now since the
Berlin musician and producer was first invited to have a selection of his House
tracks played by an orchestra. Now the Tokyo Secret Orchestra has recorded
seven pieces arranged for chamber orchestra that are reminiscent of the
minimalism of Steve Reich and Michael Nyman not least in their poetry and
magnetic pull. In between times, a piece like "In Björndal" with its
shimmering instrumental colours even takes us back to the fin de siècle and the
music of Schönberg.
The last
ten years have seen quite a few Classical performances of electronic club
music. But many of these were in the "classic rock" tradition of the
1970's, when symphony orchestras played the big pop hits of the day. "In
most cases, electronic beats were then mixed into the orchestral arrangements,
but I always found that a bit half-hearted", says Schwarz. He wasn't
interested in so-called Crossover; what interested him was what happens when
club music is transferred to a body of Classical instruments. "I wanted to
see whether this music still means anything when you take away all the
synthetic sounds and the beats." This prompted Henrik Schwarz to
experiment with the scores, working together with arranger Johannes Brecht and
various ensembles, without any computer sounds or acoustic percussion
instruments that supply a rhythm in 4/4 time.
For more
than a decade now Henrik Schwarz, 42, has been one of the best-respected House
producers and a sought-after remixer, e.g. for Mary J. Blige, Ane Brun and
Coldplay, with his music appearing on labels like Innervisions, !K7 and Sunday
Music. In recent years, he has worked on an increasing number of cross-genre
projects: Schwarz wrote the music for a silent film and worked together with
the Berlin State Ballet and painter Norbert Bisky; he makes music together with
leading jazzmen Bugge Wesseltoft and Dan Berglund, and gives concerts with
pianist Nik Bärtsch. The arrangements on INSTRUMENTS have been performed in the
last few years by different orchestras in some of Europe's best-known concert
venues, such as Berlin's Kammermusiksaal, the Amsterdam Concertgebouw or the
Tonhalle in Zurich. And the audience was delighted in every case. "An
elegant, dynamic, unprecedented combination of Classical instruments and an
Afro-American groove that doesn't seem superimposed, but is actually in the
molecules of this music" – thus critic Florian Sievers in "Groove
Magazin".
The
breakthough came for Henrik Schwarz personally with a performance given by 27
young Japanese musicians under conductor Emi Akiyama: they appeared in a
Buddhist temple in 2013 under the name Tokyo Secret Orchestra. "Suddenly I
heard my own music with different ears. Classical music makes completely
different demands on the players from a House track. In House music it's the
precision timing that creates the groove, but an orchestra is not used to
playing like a machine. In Tokyo, though, I had the feeling that the musicians managed
to penetrate to the music's core."
The
recordings made in Japan supplied the source material for the album
INSTRUMENTS. Seven pieces are rearranged here for Classical instruments, from
Henrik Schwarz's club hit "Walk Music" (which he used in the new
arrangement as an opener for his live sets for a long time) through
"Wamims", the version of a 2006 remix, to the only piece on the
record that is new and previously unreleased: "In Björndal".
All the
pieces have been arranged for the obligatory body of strings (violins, violas,
cellos and double bass, and the strings are joined by low woodwind (bass flute,
bass clarinet and bassoon) that not only supply individual timbres. In
addition, similar to the percussion instruments (the vibraphone among them), they
are also a source of rhythm. In this context, the focus is on the magic and the
magnetic power of minimalism, something that American composer Steve Reich used
to influence the pop and techno scene with his cleverly interlocking rhythmic
chains.
Right at
the outset of "Walk Music", we are offered a magical combination of
single, lyrical notes from the strings and mysterious vibraphone figures in the
background. And the following track, "Marvin", literally sprouts from
a single note that is constantly repeated. Here, the bass flute, the viola and
the cello evolve a rhythmic energy whose slightly burlesque tone is initially
reminiscent of the Neo-Classicism of Stravinsky – at least until the orchestra
strikes up a groove in several parts.
Nor is
this by any means the only reference to the great Classical masters:
inconspicuous reminiscences of this kind are cunningly sprinkled in at liberty.
The piece "In Björndal" radiates a curious and seductive melancholy
magic that could almost be a tribute to Arnold Schönberg and his prismatic
style. Another example: arranger Johannes Brecht added to the ensemble for
"Leave My Head Alone Brain" a bassett horn, a member of the clarinet
family that Mozart was particularly fond of. And in "I Exist Because Of
You" the cello sometimes plays the so-called 'Bartók pizzicati' that go
back to the Hungarian composer: the cellist twangs the string and then lets it
spring back against the fingerboard.
The
harmonies and sounds of the original tracks are played here by the strings and
also a number of woodwind instruments, among which the bass clarinet has the
starring role. Time and time again, production techniques from electronic music
such as loops or low-cuts are transformed into orchestral arrangements, with
frequencies being muffled over the space of several bars (e.g. in "Leave
My Head Alone Brain Seven"). The result is a new kind of music played on
Classical instruments. a music that doesn't deny its roots in the club world
and could only be created on the computer; a music that manages to transport
the energy of electronic dance music to the Classical concert hall – with the
bass drum only present in the listener's head.
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